Metaphor and Abstraction as Strategies in Architectural Design using Collage Method

As understanding the visual arts, the visual ability is one of the main features of architecture students, which has been neglected due to the problems in architectural design education. In the first part of the study, after studying the theorists’ opinions, the concepts of metaphor and abstraction were explained using the descriptive-analytical method, and different types of metaphor in architecture were classified into three categories. By introducing the steps in the field survey in the second part of the research, the effect and relationship between the collage practices and metaphor and abstract strategies were studied in the spatial-visual ability of the students in two groups of undergraduate students and researchers. Data collection was conducted using a closed questionnaire and Gardner’s multiple intelligence questionnaire and attending the architectural design 2 classrooms of the undergraduate architecture in the college of fine arts, Tehran University, and interviews with the professors of the architectural design in the top university of Tehran. SMART_PLS and path analysis method was applied to analyze the data, indicating that according to both groups, collage practices have a direct impact on the three stated factors in the visual-spatial ability and the type of the offered practices is influential on the communication model regarding the type of the built collage, and a more meaningful and desirable relationship occurs between abstract collages in applying the principles of abstraction to enhance visual-spatial ability. The research results could be practical for introducing this method and abstraction and metaphor strategies in architectural design education.